Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov is sharing deeply personal details about the extraordinary stretch of her life in which marriage, pregnancy, career success and devastating loss arrived almost simultaneously.
In an excerpt from her upcoming book, “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends,” Tarlov reveals that on her wedding day she learned her cancer-stricken father was nearing the end of his life.
Tarlov, 42, writes that she was 12 weeks pregnant and preparing to marry her husband Brian when her mother had to take her father to Memorial Sloan Kettering just hours before the ceremony.
Her father, film producer and later winemaker Mark Tarlov, had been battling tongue cancer since 2007 and had become gravely ill by the summer of 2021.
Tarlov writes that the family had originally planned a small civil wedding in San Francisco before changing those plans because her father wanted to see his daughter get married.
The ceremony was instead arranged near her parents’ New York apartment with views of the Statue of Liberty and a small gathering of family and friends.
On the morning of the wedding, however, Tarlov’s mother told her that her father needed to return to the hospital and there was only a chance he would make it back in time.
He ultimately did attend, arriving physically frail, using a wheelchair and unable to speak clearly because of a tracheal tube.
Tarlov describes the ceremony as an overwhelming combination of happiness and grief as her family celebrated the beginning of her marriage while understanding that her father likely would not live to meet her daughter.
Her father died in July 2021 with Tarlov, her mother and her sister beside him at home.
Tarlov writes that the three women told him it was all right to let go shortly before he died just before midnight.
At nearly the same time, Tarlov’s television career was undergoing a major transformation.
Juan Williams had announced his departure as the liberal co-host of “The Five,” creating an opening on one of Fox News’ most prominent programs.
Tarlov had already developed relationships with several of the show’s personalities through appearances with Dana Perino, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld.
She writes that she was becoming increasingly comfortable expressing herself on television even as her father’s condition deteriorated and she navigated her first pregnancy.
Her father was proud of her career but also worried about seeing his daughter challenged or shouted down during contentious television debates.
Several months after his death, when Tarlov was eight months pregnant, Fox News selected her to become a regular co-host of “The Five.”
Tarlov says her grief later surfaced unexpectedly on television when she began discussing a charity event benefiting September 11 first responders and became emotional while speaking about her father.
Fellow Fox personality Will Cain, who was seated beside her, placed a hand on her shoulder as she struggled through the moment.
Tarlov says the positive response she received from viewers helped convince her that showing vulnerability could create connections even with people who strongly disagreed with her politically.
That lesson forms part of the larger theme of “I Disagree,” which examines how people can argue passionately about politics without destroying personal relationships.
Tarlov writes that personal pain ultimately helped transform her from what she describes as an academic into a more confident advocate willing to reveal more of herself publicly.
She also credits the experience with reinforcing her belief that Americans can find common ground through shared experiences even when their political views differ dramatically.
Her book is scheduled for release September 15, People Magazine reported.
For Tarlov, the story behind her rise on “The Five” is therefore inseparable from the intensely personal year in which she became a wife and mother while saying goodbye to the father who had helped shape her voice.